Nearly one in three organizations plan to hire more information-technology workers in the year ahead, with large employers seeking IT pros with specialized skills in artificial intelligence and cybersecurity, according to a report by Spiceworks Inc., a social network for IT workers.

At the same time, roughly one quarter of IT workers say they are planning to change jobs in 2019, led by younger employees, who also are more likely than older colleagues to expect a raise and promotion in the new year, the report said.

The results are based on a survey of 1,000 network administrators, CIOs, IT managers and other tech professionals at businesses across North America and Europe in a range of industries, including manufacturing, healthcare, non-profits, education, government and finance.

Roughly half of the businesses surveyed had more than 500 employees, and about 10% had more than 5,000.

Across the board, 29% of businesses said they expect to hire more IT staff in 2019, led by growing demand for cybersecurity workers, followed by infrastructure hardware, end-user hardware, networking solutions and software development.

Larger firms were more likely than smaller ones to report a need to increase IT headcounts, the survey found.

Employers said the biggest challenge they face is upgrading IT infrastructure, while overhauling or replacing legacy systems.

When it comes to implementing innovative new capabilities, such as artificial intelligence, Internet-of-Things or edge computing, larger firms tended to face more obstacles – chiefly because they were more likely to adopt these tools at a faster rate than smaller firms, the report said.

Peter Tsai, senior technology analyst at Spiceworks, said growing demand for IT skills has many tech professionals eyeing higher paying jobs or a chance to advance their skills.

As large employers seek to keep pace with the outgrowth of digital services and products, he said, “the job outlook looks promising for IT professionals.”

International Data Corp. estimates that the growth of digital technologies and rising demand for specialized IT skills will leave 30% of global IT jobs vacant by 2022, as employers increasingly compete for these workers.

Not surprisingly, 62% of IT professionals surveyed by Spiceworks said they are looking for salaries above a current median of roughly $70,000. Despite IT budget increases at many firms in the past year, 33% of IT workers say they did not get a raise this year, it found.

About one third of Millennial-age IT workers said they planned to look for new jobs next year, compared to 26% of Gen Xers and 13% of baby boomers, Spicework said.

Women were also more likely than men to expect a promotion next year, while men were more likely to expect a raise.

U.S. employers last month hired an estimated 107,000 new IT workers, after cutting 90,000 jobs the previous month, Comptia reported last week.

Employment gains among IT workers in businesses across the economy were buoyed by continued hiring at technology firms, which added 11,700 new workers last month, the trade group said.